Image by Ivan Chudakov (Shuttersock)
No matter how you slice it, skiing is an expensive sport. With lift tickets at Vail costing you $175 what’s a ski bum to do? Well if you got some frequent flyer miles or got a hook up with an airline your best bet might be to head over seas to one of the follow ski areas. Skyscanner has put together a list of the world’s ten cheapest ski resorts.
Check out the list and see if anything jumps out at you:
Jasna, Slovakia
This is Slovakia’s biggest and “best ” ski resort.
It’s located in the Low Tatras National Park with an elevation of 2,024m boasting up to a 1,000m vertical drop (that’s more than 3k feet if you can’t do the math). The tree skiing looks fun. – Resort Link
Kolasin, Montenegro
Great tree skiing and lots of untracked powder make this a great spot to get off the beaten path.
It’s been said that Jezerine ski area near Kolasin resembles the ski resorts of Japan, and that the lodges at the base would fit in a place like Whistler. We’ll take the Japan reference as most important. – Resort Link
Borovets, Bulgaria
Borovets is the oldest ski resort in Bulgaria, located at about 1,300m in the Rila Mountains.
It’s made up of three separate zones and is close to several other local ski areas. Apparently the après ski here is all-time, and has a reputation for many going bigger here than on the slopes. That means you can get hammered cheaply (and daily), and be a better skier than anyone else. – Resort Link
Kopaonik, Serbia
Kopaonik is known as one of the more modern resorts in Eastern Europe.
It also seems to be yet another of these hidden”cheap” ski resorts with great powder and tree skiing, and no competition. This is also one of those locales where you will see people still partying if you wake up in the dark for first chair on a powder day. It’d probably be better if you started drinking water at say 6a.m. to “sober up” and fool the drunkards when you slide into line at 8. – Resort Link
Livigno, Italy
Livigno is the place to go for park skiing. It reportedly has a bigger and better park than Squaw as well as rails, etc.
They also have a toned down park for those not rowdy enough to send it big, but want to try. Livigno is also in a duty free zone so apres parties should be lively as can be. Traveling to Italy for a park sounds kinda weird to us, but with so many resorts in the country, why not try something new? – Resort Link
Vogel, Slovenia
Of any place on this list, Vogel is the couples spot.
Making-out is probably more common around here than keg stands, but there’s still some solid ski terrain. It’s also ideal for a family ski vacation. Vogel overlooks Lake Bohinj, is part of the Triglav National Park, and is widely considered an extremely beautiful place to travel travel too. – Resort Link
Popova Shapka, Macedonia
This is Macedonia’s best ski resort and also home to one of Europe’s only cat-skiing operations: Eskimo-freeride.
As the story goes you go up in a converted piste-groomer to the resorts backcountry powder stashes and a guide helps navigate you down through “perfectly spaced pines”. The other “stashes” in the area will also have to be shown to you by a local “guide”. – Resort Link
Gulmarg, Kashmir, India
This might be the only place on this list you’ve already heard of.
Your big cost here is getting there. But once you do the adventure is on. A politically tumultuous zone, the peace has been steady as of late, and with monkey’s running around, and some of the best and longest lift-accessed powder in the world, you’ll probably be pretty stoked to be here, as long as the gondola is running. – Resort Link
Poiana-Brasov, Romania
Poiana-Brasov has a lot of on-piste terrain.
In fact, there’s at least nine miles of it. Its got night skiing, and might be looked at as one of the better family places on the list. In case the translation doesn’t compute, this place is mellow, but still worthy for budget travelers to check out. – Resort Link
The Highlands, Scotland
The weather isn’t the highpoint of a skiing trip to Scotland, but depending on what the weather is doing in the European Alps, it might be a solid bet.
It’s also a truly unique and diverse experience to ski in Scotland, as opposed to skiing on the European Mainland. It’s also less expensive. However, it seems like skiing here can be worse than a east coast blizzard in New Hampshire cubed, most of the time, so you might want to plan accordingly, or just be prepared for a lot of bar time with the locals. – Resort Link
We’ve kept the list and descriptions brief, but if you’re interested in following up on skiing at one of these spots check out the resort links underneath the resort descriptions, and try skyscanner for bargain airfare deals. You never know, maybe we’ll see you in Macedonia this winter!